The present invention relates to voice recording and more particularly to embedding voice recording within particular applications.
In some instances, computing devices, such as handheld personal computers and palm-size personal computers, are capable of recording voice notes for later retrieval. Such computing devices typically include a voice recording application for recording the voice, playing it back, and storing the voice notes. The voice recording application typically includes a tool bar having software buttons relating to play, stop, pause, fast forward, rewind, and record, along with a list view displaying all of the recorded voice notes.
When a user chooses to record a voice note, the user either presses a hardware record button or a software record button within the voice record application. Typically, the hardware record button is wired to execute the voice recording application and to push the software record button within the voice recording application. The voice record application records the voice until the button is depressed. The voice recording application saves the voice note as a file and stores the file for later retrieval by the user. Typically, the file is stored within a central directory. The voice record application includes a list view that displays the voice files for the user""s information. If the user wishes to play back one of the voice notes, the user finds the voice note from the view list, selects the voice note, i.e. by highlighting the voice note, and selects play. The voice recording application plays the voice note back to the user.
Such systems have disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that the storage of the voice notes is in the central directory. This is inconvenient for the user. The list view lists all the voice recordings stored within the system, making organization of the voice notes difficult. Another disadvantage of such systems is that a user cannot associate the voice note with other data. For example, if the user is viewing a person""s contact information and records a voice note regarding directions to the person""s house, the voice note is stored within the central directory, not with the contact information. Therefore, improvements are desirable.
The invention may be implemented as a computer process, a computing system or as an article of manufacture such as a computer program product. The computer program product may be a computer storage medium readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. The computer program product may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process.
In one aspect of the present invention, a method of embedding voice data in a computing system is provided. The method includes detecting a record event and detecting if a software application currently running on the computing system is voice-aware. The method also includes embedding the voice data within associated data in the software application, if the software application is voice-aware. If the software application is not voice-aware, the method also includes triggering a voice note application to record and store the voice data.
Another aspect of the present invention includes a system for embedding voice data in a computing system. The system includes a detect module, a top-level module, an embed module, and a trigger module. The detect module detects a record event. The top-level module detects if a software application currently running on the computing system is voice-aware. The embed module embeds the voice data within associated data in the software application, if the software application is voice-aware. The trigger module triggers a voice note application to record and store the voice data, if the application is not voice-aware.
In another aspect, a computer program product readable by a computing system and encoding instructions for a computer process for a embedding a voice note in a computing system is provided. The computer process is analogous to the method described above.
In another aspect, a method in a computing system for modifying a user interface displayed on a display device is provided. The method includes receiving an indication from the computing device to modify the user interface. The method further includes displaying an identification block, a record toolbar, a note pad, and a note tab.
In another aspect, a display device having rendered thereon a user interface for displaying an embedded voice note is provided. The display device includes an identification block, a record tool bar, a note pad, and a note tab.